International Law

In Hindsight

Posted on March 22, 2011
this seems to be an excellent idea. Actually, they probably should have a small coal plant located right on site at each nuclear plant. And solar panels all over the place, as well as windpower generators. Since a power outage destroys the nuclear plant and risks large-scale radiation spread, there should be at least five [...

Ganbare Nippon

Posted on March 22, 2011
(bumped) I would like to get a balloon with the message ?Ganbare Nippon? floating right at the Fukushima site. That balloon should be well visible, via all those television reports. It should also transport a small camera to look closely at the plants from above, giving the operators valuable information...

152

Posted on March 22, 2011
That is the number of stairs from the ground floor to the 7th floor at the building of my university where my office is. I know this because I walked these stairs a couple of times today instead of taking the elevator, to help saving electricity. A nice bonus is the fact that this gives [...

Eurotechnology.com newsletter

Posted on March 22, 2011
Anybody interested in the nuclear disaster should subscribe to the Eurotechnology.com newsletter here. I was subscribed already for different reasons, but found their information in the newsletter extremely interesting and helpful. Form their latest newsletter of today: Situation in Tokyo: We see Japanese companies and Japanese workers – including our company Eurotechnology-Japan here in Tokyo - [...

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Power restored

Posted on March 22, 2011
at Units 1, 2, 5, and 6 (Kyodonews). Water spraying with the Putzmeister concrete pouring trucks is scheduled for afternoon today.

All 6 Units now connected to grid

Posted on March 22, 2011
says the latest Kyodonews article. Massive amounts of water have been sprayed on Units 3 and 4, with the new concrete squeeze pump also joining the effort.

?Flyjin?

Posted on March 22, 2011
Seems to be a new term coined for foreigners fleeing Tokyo. Not a compliment. It is a variation on “gaijin” (Japanese for “foreigner”).

My 2009 paper

Posted on March 22, 2011
I have written a paper on large-scale energy from the desert in December 2009 (in Japanese language), it is online here. In that paper I discuss the idea of using the Gobi desert in Mongolia for large scale solar projects, while also introducing the Desertec Industrial Initiative to a Japanese audience...

Second IAEA radiation monitoring team

Posted on March 22, 2011
coming to Japan soon so IAEA can step up their activities. They will provide another source of radiation data for Tokyo (Kyodonews article). We already have that. But this might help establishing even more trust in the data. Of course the idea that either TEPCO or the Japanese Government would try to falsify this data [...

US military not running away

Posted on March 22, 2011
This Kyodonews article discusses media reports about the American military evacuating Yokosuka base near Tokyo. A Pentagon spokesman has denied such plans. The effectiveness of military operations would seem to be compromised severely if they start to bail out at present radiation levels...

151 microsievert

Posted on March 22, 2011
this morning in Tokyo. That is down from a peak of 166 at 9 PM yesterday.

Latest Government press conference

Posted on March 21, 2011
Now viewable at the Government live stream site (21st, six PM). Chief cabinet secretary Edano started out with a report about the Governments restrictions regarding the sale of milk and vegetables from some Prefectures close to the site. These measures are not necessary to stop damage to human health, since the levels triggering them are [...

Japanese Government video streaming site

Posted on March 21, 2011
here.

Radiation level map

Posted on March 21, 2011
showing an area of abound 60 kilometers around the nuclear plant site has been published by the Japanese Government here. It shows the data for yesterday and was released at 10 AM today. Somewhat against what one might expect, the highest level on record there (105 microsievert) is at a place slightly outside the 30 [...

FON network opened for free

Posted on March 21, 2011
FON is the largest WiFi network of the world; it has been opened to the public free of charge immediately after the earthquake. Thank you, FON.

Swiss Embassy moving to Osaka

Posted on March 21, 2011
says the Guardian here. They are joining the German Embassy with this move. Even if there was some real danger (which I don’t think there is), shouldn’t the Embassies be the last to bail out?

JAIF

Posted on March 21, 2011
means “Japanese Atomic Industrial Forum“. They offer timely updates on the exact situation at the Fukushima site with a lot of detail.

Ganbare Nippon

Posted on March 21, 2011
(bumped) I would like to get a balloon with the message ?Ganbare Nippon? floating right at the Fukushima site. That balloon should be well visible, via all those television reports. It should also transport a small camera to look closely at the plants from above, giving the operators valuable information...

Cooperation convention

Posted on March 21, 2011
Japan is a State Party to the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or a Radiological Emergency. That Convention provides a legal framework for all international cooperation in dealing with the Fukushima accident.

Tap water safe

Posted on March 21, 2011
for the moment (Kyodonews article). The recent rise in radiation levels in Tokyo is explained by the rain. Tokyo had 2.9 becquerels per kiloliter of drinking water, which is well below the intake limit set by the government of 300. Even in Fukushima prefecture the level was at 23, well below one tenth of the [...

Situation stabilizing

Posted on March 21, 2011
says Bill Borchardt, executive director for operations at the American Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Kyodonews). He also commented on the 5o mile evacuation advisory of the American Government, which is a much larger area than the 20 kilometers the Japanese Government designed for evacuation...

134 nanosievert

Posted on March 21, 2011
this morning in Tokyo. That is down from a peak of 148 at 1 AM, and falling right now.

Disaster Website of the Japanese Government

Posted on March 20, 2011
here, with translations of all press conferences. Japanese version is here. The Japanese Twitter stream has some more info not necessarily translated to the English one.

Ganbare Nippon

Posted on March 20, 2011
(bumped) I would like to get a balloon with the message ?Ganbare Nippon? floating right at the Fukushima site. That balloon should be well visible, via all those television reports. It should also transport a small camera to look closely at the plants from above, giving the operators valuable information...

More than 2000 Tons of Water

Posted on March 20, 2011
sprayed on Unit 3. That is more than the capacity of the spent fuel pool (1400 tons). (Kyodonews). Unit 4 got 80 tons in an hour today. And the pools at Units 5 and 6 are back at temperatures of 37.1 and 41 Celsius respectively. These Units are out of the woods for good now...

Republicans Trying to Pull the Plug

Posted on March 20, 2011
on a solar project in Nevada, see this Dailykos diary by “Jamess”. With Republicans controlling one part of the American Congress, there is much less to be expected from America. Other parts of the world need to pick up that extra burden and put even more effort into avoiding global warming.

DESERTEC Statement

Posted on March 20, 2011
Here is, in full, a DESERTEC statement on the nuclear accident: Statement by Katrin-Susanne Richter, Director of the non-profit DESERTEC Foundation, in response to the nuclear emergency in Japan: We are following the current events in Japan and the tragedy for many Japanese people with sympathy and dismay...

Stop the Hysteria

Posted on March 20, 2011
An appell on Youtube. The nuclear plants are chilling just fine. Now the trick is to cool down the overreactions and the hysteria. These are dangerous as well. At the very least they distract from the more urgent tasks of helping the areas actually affected...

Ganbare Nippon

Posted on March 20, 2011
(bumped) I would like to get a balloon with the message ?Ganbare Nippon? floating right at the Fukushima site. That balloon should be well visible, via all those television reports. It should also transport a small camera to look closely at the plants from above, giving the operators valuable information...

Putzmeister

Posted on March 20, 2011
Today’s Al Jazeira Live Blog noted (scroll to 1:41 AM) that a Putzmeister concrete pumping system will be used tomorrow to insert water more precisely.

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